Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Qiao You's recent actions were so uncharacteristic, and his demeanor so frank and natural, that Lan Yexing was momentarily taken aback. He stared wide-eyed for a long moment before finally managing to blurt out, "Wasting food is shameful."

Qiao You met his gaze, "You're right."

Lan Yexing's eyebrow twitched subtly, "And you can't just throw away things my friend gave me—"

No sooner had he spoken than the faint screech of several cars braking echoed from downstairs. Then, more footsteps grew louder, drawing nearer.

Lan Yexing quickly fell silent, holding his breath. He and Qiao You exchanged a glance: Yuan Ping's family and the ambulance they'd called seemed to have arrived.

The corridor outside soon filled with noisy, hurried footsteps, interspersed with the calm inquiries of medical personnel.

They appeared to be stretchering the unconscious Yuan Ping out.

After a while, the sounds completely vanished, and the entire building plunged into pure darkness and silence—the ambulance must have taken Yuan Ping away.

There should be no one to worry about in this building now.

Lan Yexing finally breathed a sigh of relief, completely relaxing.

He didn't even have time to ask about the cookies. He simply rose briskly and walked out, saying, "Senior, I have something to do, so I'll be leaving first. Make yourself at home."

He wondered how the omega on the rooftop, contemplating a jump, was faring.

Qiao You thoughtfully glanced at his empty embrace, then uncharacteristically followed.

Seeing this, Lan Yexing didn't tell him to leave. Instead, he quickly ascended the stairs, asking, "Did you do that to Yuan Ping? Those three ribs... were they Yuan Ping's?"

"Was that your mental power?"

Otherwise, he couldn't fathom Qiao You's presence here.

The blonde young man's hand, bandaged from the pet shop incident, hung at his side. He didn't answer, merely offered a slight smile.

Lan Yexing then knew he had guessed everything correctly. He immediately reacted, "Yuan Ping was behind the pet shop incident?!" In that case, Qiao You's revenge tonight was perfectly understandable.

Jian Si had mentioned that the Paradise Club Yuan Ping founded also included delinquents from outside the school. It wasn't surprising that he could find outsiders to do his bidding.

However, he simply couldn't imagine Yuan Ping retaliating against him in such a way simply because he refused to join the club; or that he could devise a method to force Qiao You into submission by harming Qiao You's most cherished family member, simply because his pursuit of Qiao You was rejected.

Simply over trivial matters, that scumbag would harm two lives.

No wonder Jian Si said he was illogically mad.

Let alone Qiao You retaliating in this manner, even he, who considered himself to have a good temper, now wanted to beat that guy senseless.

Qiao You calmly looked at the young man whose face had turned cold and said indifferently, "He was behind that fire too." He risked the lives of Lan Yexing and another civilian omega, not hesitating to damage his family's interests to facilitate that fire, simply to teach his illegitimate brother a lesson.

Yuan Ping just didn't expect that he was also in that warehouse at the time, so the controllable losses Yuan Ping had envisioned for the Yuan family expanded at least tenfold.

Lan Yexing's pupils contracted—what a super scumbag who deserved to be locked up in prison forever.

By this time, they had reached the top floor of the building, and the door to the rooftop was just a few steps up.

Lan Yexing stopped, turned to the blonde young man, and said, "Senior, may I ask why you're following me?" Did Qiao You have something else to do here tonight?

Qiao You smiled, "Curiosity." Simply because of a rare surge of curiosity.

Lan Yexing: [Silence]

He sighed softly, looking directly into those green eyes, and said earnestly, "There's someone on the rooftop who's about to jump. I'm going to save them."

Lan Yexing spoke quickly, "There are no surveillance cameras in this building. I believe you didn't expose yourself to Yuan Ping and his accomplices when you attacked him, so no one else should know about this except us."

"You shouldn't let the person on the rooftop know you were here tonight, so don't follow me. Just go."

Without waiting for a reply, Lan Yexing strode up the last few steps, slowly pushed open the door to the rooftop, and stepped through.

...

The blonde young man's figure was completely obscured by the darkness. Only after the young man's back completely disappeared did he smile and look up at the rooftop door, his green eyes glowing with a dangerous brilliance in the darkness.

He came here tonight not just for revenge, but also for... research and experimentation.

He didn't extract three of Yuan Ping's ribs; instead, he "extracted" all of his organs. However, when reassembling them, he deliberately omitted three ribs as retaliation for Yuan Ping's actions against his family elders and Lan Yexing.

A month ago, when he first saw Yuan Ping at that restaurant, he had already decided to do this.

After all, ordinary pheromone systems can at most affect the pheromones of alphas and omegas, and people with pheromone systems that can affect mental power are actually rare. He really wanted to find the clue he had always sought—for example, what exactly is related to the generation of mental power, which only some people possess.

Qiao You stared directly at the door a few steps away, his smile still on his face: If that young man knew the whole truth about this, would he... be afraid of him?

...

On the other side of the door.

Lan Yexing stood on the cold, windswept rooftop, his expression hardening as he looked at the figure already standing on the edge in the distance.

It was a somewhat weathered and hunched figure.

The omega's hair was messy, and he wasn't wearing a school uniform, but a white lab coat. He didn't look like a student. A lit cigarette was held in his drooping hand, and he looked utterly dejected.

Lan Yexing slowed his breathing, lightened his steps, and quietly approached. When he was a meter or two away, he concentrated the system's current in his feet, gripping the rebar-containing ground to maximize his stability and ensure safety. Then he strode to the edge of the rooftop, suddenly embraced the man's waist, and fell backward.

Just as the lit cigarette in the man's hand was about to accidentally burn Lan Yexing's hand, it suddenly vanished into thin air.

With a "thud," the two fell backward together onto the ground.

A panicked man's voice rang out, "Holy crap—hey—who are you? You're not a ghost, are you!"

Lan Yexing's mouth twitched as he stood up and looked at the man on the ground, "I'm a human."

After a pause, he tried to comfort the other person, "Love is just a small part of life, isn't it? There's no need to jump off a building in the middle of the night for it."

The bearded man stared wide-eyed at the strange student who had suddenly appeared, his face as beautiful as a ghost. After a long moment, he broke down and shouted, "Who said I'm jumping for love, huh!"

"Don't look down on adults who work hard to make a living, student!"

Lan Yexing blinked in surprise, "You're not jumping because you want to pursue someone?"

The man's mouth twitched as he wiped his face and sighed, "No—of course, that scumbag Yuan Ping did force me to use jumping off a building to get someone's attention." That idiotic scumbag was unbelievable. He said he wanted to test if the person he was pursuing liked the type who would jump for them. On the other hand, it could also intimidate that person and force them into submission.

However, the person who forced him onto the rooftop and was then responsible for making him jump was suddenly called away midway, apparently because something happened to Yuan Ping.

So, if he wanted to come down later, he could have just gone back to sleep.

Lan Yexing, "Then why did you—" He hesitated whether to inquire about others' privacy.

The man looked at Lan Yexing for a long time, then sighed heavily. He really needed to talk now, and he felt that tonight's encounter was a kind of fate, so he began, "My name is Yang Qing, and I'm one of the researchers Xingdu University recruited half a year ago."

Lan Yexing was startled: He suddenly remembered the business card Dr. Xi Jing had given him.

Yang Qing didn't notice Lan Yexing's abnormality, but continued, "After signing the contract with Xingdu University, Yuan Ping suddenly parachuted into our team, forcing us to change our research direction and work on another project. Everyone was an ordinary person and couldn't afford the breach of contract penalty, so we could only put down our original project and start a new one."

"Some time ago, the new project I led finally succeeded. It was a specific medicine for a difficult disease. That scumbag Yuan Ping not only took all the project results as the first author but also forced me to join this messy club, and tonight he forced me to jump off a building."

"I just stood by the edge of the building, and the cold wind made my head a little dizzy. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that living was meaningless—but with you stopping me like this, I'm much clearer now. If I died, wouldn't that just be what that scumbag wanted?"

"So," Yang Qing looked at the young man and smiled mischievously, "Thank you very much, Xiao Xing."

Lan Yexing was silent for a moment, then sat down beside the man, hugging his knees.

He looked at the dark sky in the distance, his soft bangs blown by the cold wind. He said softly, "Yuan Ping is missing three ribs now, so he probably won't be able to come to school for a long time, and he won't have the energy to harass and suppress you. Do you want to use this time to try and reclaim your achievements?"

Yang Qing was startled, then smiled at the sky, "Then I'll give it a try." That idiot really got what he deserved. He wondered who was acting on behalf of heaven.

After a pause, he looked at the young man, "Xiao Xing, what's your name?"

The young man: "Lan Yexing."

Yang Qing's eyes widened, "Ah, you're the student Senior Xi Jing mentioned who's allergic to pheromones during estrus!"

Lan Yexing blinked, "That's me."

Yang Qing "ah'd" and ruffled his messy hair, saying, "Then you can come find me anytime after this. Lab 301 in the old medical school building, or your school hospital, either is fine—I work part-time as a school doctor at the school hospital. Senior sister should have given you my contact information."

Lan Yexing nodded and thanked him earnestly, then stood up and looked at the man, "Then let's leave here. I want to get a good night's sleep tonight."

Yang Qing hummed and stood up, walking with him towards the door.

Behind the door, the handsome, tall blonde young man's figure remained hidden in the darkness. He held the cigarette, which was about to burn the young man's hand before he "extracted" it here, with a tissue, a look of utter disgust on his face. The moment he heard footsteps on the rooftop, he silently turned and left.

...

After parting ways with Yang Qing, Lan Yexing couldn't go back to the dorm, so he climbed over the school wall and found a nearby hotel to stay for the night.

Before dawn the next day, he avoided the surveillance cameras and climbed back into the school. After returning Jiang Xiaozhou's car to its original spot, he went to a nearby restaurant.

While he was eating breakfast, Jian Si naturally sat down across from him with a tray holding breakfast and an exquisite box of cookies. He smiled sweetly at the young man, "Morning, Xiao Xing."

Lan Yexing: "Morning."

Saying that, he took out the short story collection he bought at the bookstore that morning and handed it to the other person, "This is a return gift for the cookies."

His friend had carefully prepared a thoughtful gift for him, so he should reciprocate.

He remembered Jian Si saying in a professional class that he really liked this author.

Jian Si's blue eyes sparkled, and he happily took it, saying, "Thank you, I love it!"

Lan Yexing said "you're welcome" and was about to confess that the cookies were accidentally lost when he saw the card on Jian Si's tray box and was startled: it read "To Senior Qiao You."

The system hadn't issued a task yet, indicating that Jian Si hadn't decided on the exact time to send it.

Jian Si, completely unaware of the system's existence, saw Lan Yexing looking at the card and blinked, "These are store-bought cookies. The ones I made myself are for you."

Lan Yexing: "Eh?"

Jian Si continued to smile, his gaze on the tin box, his eyes inexplicably cold. He said indifferently, "My pursuit of Senior Qiao You, plus the company affairs my family is starting to pressure me with, must be completely separated from my private life."

Then he smiled sweetly, but the smile didn't reach his eyes, "This is my last bottom line."

Lan Yexing was startled and was about to say something when he felt a slight tingling click on his right wrist. He looked down at the text on the dial:

"This morning, target Qiao You, after completing his soccer morning training, will encounter an omega in estrus in his professional class who will ask him for a mark. Host, please stop this capture event as soon as possible."

Lan Yexing: "..."

Omegas in estrus in this world are very dangerous, aren't they?

How could someone pursue someone in such a self-destructive way?

Lan Yexing quickly finished his breakfast and then suddenly stood up.

Jian Si looked at him in surprise, "Xiao Xing?"

Lan Yexing picked up his empty plate and said sincerely, "Sorry, I have something to do, so I'm leaving first."

Jian Si blinked and said, "Okay, then you go ahead."

After walking a few steps, Lan Yexing remembered something and turned back to Jian Si, saying helplessly and a little awkwardly, "Jian Si, do you have any extra inhibitors on you? Can I borrow one?"